According to legal documents PG&E submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission, the utility anticipated lower demand — not for energy in general, but for nuclear energy specifically.
One reason is a growing number of California residents buying power through local energy purchasing groups called community choice aggregators, the 2016 legal documents say. Many of those organizations simply refuse to buy nuclear.
There are 23 local CCAs in California serving more than 11 million customers. In 2010, less than 1% of California's population had access to a CCA, according to a UCLA analysis published in October. That's up to more than 30%, the report said.
In some ways California is a state to be proud of. But it’s still a part of the US and not immune to our general stupidity. I would hope to see us bringing a few new nuclear power plants online.
In some ways California is a state to be proud of. But it’s still a part of the US and not immune to our general stupidity. I would hope to see us bringing a few new nuclear power plants online.
I think it’s too late for that for conventional nuclear power plants, because that by the time a new one came online, solar and wind will be even cheaper. But keeping more existing plants running...
I think it’s too late for that for conventional nuclear power plants, because that by the time a new one came online, solar and wind will be even cheaper. But keeping more existing plants running would have been very useful in the upcoming energy crisis.
Diablo Canyon will keep running until 2024 and 2025, though, so hopefully California will be in better shape by then.
One reason from the article:
In some ways California is a state to be proud of. But it’s still a part of the US and not immune to our general stupidity. I would hope to see us bringing a few new nuclear power plants online.
I think it’s too late for that for conventional nuclear power plants, because that by the time a new one came online, solar and wind will be even cheaper. But keeping more existing plants running would have been very useful in the upcoming energy crisis.
Diablo Canyon will keep running until 2024 and 2025, though, so hopefully California will be in better shape by then.